We should carefully perform our duties to Save the Environment- General Secretary, POBA
Engineer Md. Abdus Sobhan, Former Additional Director General of Environment Department, Bangladesh, and General Secretary of Poribesh Bachao Andolon (POBA), said,
“We always see a picture in front of most shops or markets in Dhaka city. Usually, shopkeepers sweep all their waste into the mouth of the small drain on the side of the road. Where most of the dirt is polythene type, that polythene further accelerates our environmental pollution.”
Engineer Md Abdus Sobhan said these things in a private conversation with Bangla Insider about the role of citizens in preventing environmental pollution. Shanto Singh, a news reporter for Bangla Insider, has interviewed Md Abdus Sobhan for the readers.
Engineer Md. Abdus Sobhan said, ”Actually, none of us do our duty correctly. We all should do our duty properly. That is for ourselves, our environment, and our future generations.
There are different types of garbage in the streets of our country, and they smell bad. Bad smell means environmental pollution. That is, the bad smell is spreading means the environment is getting polluted.
“Moreover, this stench enters our respiratory system through breathing, which has a deadly harmful effect on our bodies. The foul smell emanating from Dhaka River Port, Sadarghat water means it is polluted. This image is all over our country,” he added.
He also said that we have two types of responsibilities in this regard. One is that those who are responsible for the collection of all these wastes may be the city corporation or municipal council.
“They should perform their duty correctly. Another thing is that we who are citizens also have a responsibility not to throw away our used products in the right place,” he continued.
In response to the question, “Why is this pollution not reduced?” Engineer Abdus Sobhan replied, “The main reason for not reducing the pollution is that those who are implementing the mega projects, such as Dhaka WASA, Titas Gas, DESCO), etc., are not doing the work following any rules to preserve the environment.”
He replied, “However, they are obliged to do so. Why aren’t they doing it? It may be they have no environmental Knowledge or deny it, or performing with no accountability.
Another thing is that those who will be monitoring them, mainly the Department of Environment, Bangladesh, are not watching the respective authority.”
“Those of us who run significant projects, or those who look after these institutions, all of them are big foreign institutions. They cannot act like this in their country or any other country, but they are doing it here.
What is even Supervisor is that many of our natives who work on these projects are retired government officials. They have also created this polluted environment together with them,” he added.
(Translated by, Courtesy: Bangla Insider)
